China made its biggest purchase ever of US corn in another boost to meeting agriculture targets set in the countries’ “phase one” trade accord.
The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said that exporters sold 1.762 million tonnes of corn, the fourth-biggest spot deal ever for the grain.
The agency on Friday last week reported a sale of 1.365 million tonnes to China.
China is poised to meet or surpass import quotas set by the WTO for 7.2 million tonnes of corn from any country in a year. Beijing issued a new batch of permits that allow imports at lower tariffs.
The nation agreed to buy US$36.5 billion in agricultural commodities this year from the US as part of the trade accord, up from US$24 billion in 2017.
The buying spree of US agricultural products could help US President Donald Trump shore up support from farmers ahead of the November presidential election.
The farming sector is crucial to maintain farm and rust-belt states that carried him to victory four years ago.
US farmers have received billions in aid payments after crop, meat and other farm-product exports declined in 2018 as a US-China trade dispute worsened.
“Right now, the purchases give the president something concrete to talk about in helping corn belt crop farmers, but I think the impact politically is pretty marginal at this point,” University of Illinois agriculture economist Scott Irwin said in a message.
Tensions were also flaring between the US and China, potentially threatening the trade accord.
At a news conference at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he issued an order to end Hong Kong’s special status with the US and signed legislation that would sanction Chinese officials responsible for cracking down on political dissent in Hong Kong.
He has no plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Trump added.
He also said there have been increased Chinese agricultural purchases.
“A lot of people ask, how are they doing on the trade deal?” Trump said. “Well, they’re buying a lot.”
That follows Trump’s statement last week that he was not considering a second phase to the trade deal.
For US farmers, ample grain supplies, lackluster demand and relatively benign weather for crops have pressured prices for Chicago corn futures, despite the record sales to China.
“The key is whether the purchases lift grain prices off of recent lows for a sustained period of time,” Irwin said. “This looks to be tough to do right now, because rains are improving the outlook for yields at the same time.”
China’s imports of other raw materials from crude oil to soybeans surged last month as the economy started to recover from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the US, virus cases are rising and commodity markets are under pressure from limited demand for feed and fuel.
The huge export sales have a more modest impact on corn futures than normal, with grain inventories rising faster than consumption.
“China would need to buy five times this amount just to get us close to the carryover we currently have,” said John Payne, a senior futures and options broker at Daniels Trading in Chicago. “This is a positive development, though.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has decided to slow down its 3-nanometer chip production as Intel Corp, one of its major customers, plans to push back the launch of its new Meteor Lake tGPU chipsets to the end of next year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. That means Intel has canceled almost all of the 3-nanometer capacity booked for next year, with only a small amount of wafer input remaining for engineering verification, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report. Based on Intel’s original schedule, TSMC was to start producing the new chipsets in
DATA SHOW DOWNTURN: Manufacturing in Taiwan contracted as production and demand slumped, while growth in chip exports last month eased in South Korea World chip sales growth has decelerated for six straight months in another sign that the global economy is straining under the weight of rising interest rates and mounting geopolitical risks. Semiconductor sales rose 13.3 percent in June from a year earlier, down from 18 percent in May, data from the global peak industry body showed. The slowdown is the longest since the US-China trade dispute in 2018. The three-month moving average in chip sales has correlated with the global economy’s performance in the past few decades. The latest weakness comes as concern about a worldwide recession has prompted chipmakers such as Samsung
‘NO NEED TO WORRY’: The central bank governor said foreign selling on the TAIEX is normal for this time of year and that the nation has ample forex reserves Taiwan would emerge unscathed from China’s retaliatory actions to protest US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, top monetary and financial officials said yesterday. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) shrugged off unease over potential instability in the foreign exchange and stock markets after foreign portfolio funds trimmed their holdings of local shares for two straight days amid Beijing’s threats of retaliation. “There is no need to worry,” Yang said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s (CABEI) Taipei office and the 30th anniversary of
Italy is close to clinching a deal initially worth US$5 billion with Intel Corp to build an advanced semiconductor packaging and assembly plant in the country, two sources briefed on discussions said yesterday. Intel’s investment in Italy is part of a wider plan announced by the US chipmaker earlier this year to invest US$88 billion in building capacity across Europe, which is striving to cut its reliance on Asian chip imports and ease a supply crunch that has curbed output in the region’s strategic auto sector. Asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, the sources said the